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SAN FRANCISCO, California, US, July 5, 2006
(Refocus Weekly)
The Sierra Club has filed suit against U.S.
defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Department of Defense for
creating a virtual moratorium on the construction of new windfarms.
The suit was filed in District Court for the Northern District of
California, claiming that Rumsfeld and the DOD have violated the
Administrative Procedure Act and will seek to "compel agency action
unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed." It claims that the
secretary and his department have failed to complete a
congressionally mandated study of the impact of turbines on radar
while DOD, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal
Aviation Administration have halted windfarm construction within
radar line of sight of any military radar, effectively stopping
construction across the country.
“While the Defense Department drags its feet studying if windfarms
are a threat to national security, Americans are missing out on
cleaner, cheaper energy," says staff attorney Kristin Henry of
Sierra Club. "If the military can have windmills and effective radar
at Guantanamo, why can't we have both in the Midwest?"
The move by the Bush administration to link wind power to national
security threats is especially ironic, the group explains, given
that it took a recent decision of federal court to force the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to consider the potential impacts from a
terrorist attack on nuclear reactors when conducting environmental
reviews.
"The same administration that didn't want to consider terrorism when
building nuclear plants is saying that windmills may be a threat to
national security," says Henry.
The latest National Defense Authorization Act contained a
last-minute amendment that requires Rumsfeld and DOD to complete a
study by last May on the effect of turbines on military readiness
and the operation of military radar installations. The amendment was
inserted by Virginia senator John Warner.
To construct and operate a wind turbine in the United States, a
developer must obtain a notice from the FAA stating that the
installation is not a hazard to air navigation. The FAA is
interpreting DOD's ‘Interim Windmill Policy’ to mean that it cannot
approve any wind projects "within radar line of sight" and the
agency has been issuing ‘Notices of Presumptive Hazard’ which
decline to provide the required notice until more information is
obtained regarding possible interference with military radar
installations.
Since most of the U.S. and almost all of the midwest is "within
radar line of sight," this policy has a sweeping effect and has
essentially created a de facto moratorium on new wind power
projects, says Sierra Club.
Federal officials have declined to reveal how many windfarms have
been blocked from construction but media reports say at least 15
windfarm proposals in the midwest have been shut down, including one
facility near Bloomington, Illinois, that would be the nation's
largest wind project, generating electricity for 120,000 homes in
Chicago. Coal and natural gas likely will replace the lost
generation from wind, the group argues, resulting in higher energy
costs and increased soot, smog and global warming pollution.
"Paralyzing wind energy development could not have come at a worse
time," adds attorney David Bookbinder. "The Department of Defense
has provided no indication of when it intends to complete the
required study, even though the deadline has already passed.
Meanwhile the window for claiming tax credits on wind projects is
closing next year.”
If the moratorium continues through the summer, the group warns that
it may not be possible to complete wind projects in time for
developers to claim applicable federal tax credits, which were
extended last August until the end of 2007. The direct and indirect
economic damage that will result from suspension of windfarm
construction could easily reach tens of millions of dollars, it
adds.
On June 2, six federal senators wrote to DOD and FAA, requesting a
stop to unnecessary obstruction of construction of renewable energy
sources.
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